Abuse letters prompts allegations against 4 clergy

PITTSBURGH — Letters to alumni of Pittsburgh’s North Catholic High School prompted by reports that a former teacher is being prosecuted for child-sex crimes in Australia has resulted in new allegations against four other brothers from the same religious order — three of whom are dead.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh says only one graduate contacted church officials about Marianist Brother Bernard Hartman. The 74-year-old clergyman is awaiting trial in Australia on charges he molested four students at a Catholic school there in the 1970s and 80s.

When Pittsburgh officials learned of those charges earlier this year, they alerted alumni because Hartman also taught at the school briefly in 1961, 1970 and then from 1986-97.

The new allegations have been turned over to prosecutors, though the only living brother newly accused now lives outside the country.